David Cobos, Brazos Technology, DPS, Midland County

Audrie PalmerMidland Reporter-Telegram

Published 9:00 pm, Wednesday, March 3, 2010

One Midland County justice of the peace court soon will launch a first-of-its-kind pilot program in conjunction with a statewide law enforcement agency as a method in being more efficient with filing tickets.

County commissioners approved a project presented by Precinct 2 Judge David Cobos and Constable Charles Hall last week that will use Brazos Technology to sync up with the Department of Public Safety.

"It's a unique situation for us," said Cobos. "What this program is going to allow us to do is to let us have the citation information downloaded electronically to our court systems ... It'll be almost instantaneous."

The new software program, authorities hope, will eliminate a clerk official from manually having to enter each citation into the court's computers and cut down the time from seven to 10 business days to when it will be in the system in about 24 hours.

Midland County is the only site in the state launching the program and working with DPS on the initiative, officials said.

DPS troopers currently have handheld electronic ticket writers which they use to issue citations, but the software was written in-house and not through a commercial company, Cobos said.

The funds commissioners approved last week will be used to purchase an interface software Brazos Technology of College Station will write for both the courts and DPS offices.

Cobos said the interest in the new system stems from the fact the majority of his cases come from DPS troopers, adding officers will sometimes bring in stacks of thousands each month which a clerk will then manually enter into the database.

He believes the new program will help cut down the process of getting the citations entered by about eight days and will eliminate the clerks from processing every single ticket.

"This will help to make a smooth transition from DPS to the courts," he said.

The total cost of the new software package is estimated to be about $29,000 -- money that will come from offenders and not taxpayers, Cobos said, and is expected to be purchased and installed in the next 30 days.

The Texas Legislature allotted a $4 court cost per case to be used for the technological advancement of the justice court. The courts have used the money in the past to upgrade their computers and to start the GPS truancy program as well as enhance the technology in the courtrooms and security.

"By far, this is the most ambitious project we've undertaken," Cobos said. "But I believe it will have the highest return for the dollar."